#GWSR is Ragnor and sometimes Cat

[foodsies4me]

AWG but Alec has a warlock mark

Tagging @ariella9melody and @buglersholiday because you both asked for this prompt that ended up in Cat's POV because the majority of Alec's POV would have been a mixture of "don't speak to Magnus Bane", "don't speak of Magnus Bane" and "don't tell Catarina about Magnus Bane"

Catarina stares at the young teenager, barely more than a child, in front of her. She takes in the nervous way he’s clenching and unclenching his fingers, his eyes darting every so often to a smiling Magnus, who is discussing some last-minute details with Elder Musa.

The boy is clearly uncomfortable with Magnus being there and Catarina is still trying to figure out if that’s due to his parents or something else. She doesn't think it's the usual shadowhunter bigotry, though, which is a relief because she wouldn’t want him to fight to overcome self-hatred on top of everything he already has on his plate.

“So, Alec,” she says, “- are you fine with me calling you that? Or do you prefer something else?”

“Alec is fine,” he nods, eyes darting over to a slowly approaching Ragnor. “But - uh, I thought you were sending me back to the institute, so,” another look sent Magnus’ way and a sigh of relief when he leaves, “Why am I here?”

“I’ll make a portal for you,” Catarina reassures, trying not to scare the young teenager away or make him think they’re keeping him captive, “But you’re here so we can schedule a training regimen for you that wouldn’t interrupt your shadowhunter duties.”

Catarina tries to keep her voice even as she says this, trying to ignore the same impulse that had pushed several of the Elders to mention the word ‘kidnapping’ in more than a joking manner. Because it wasn’t enough for Alec to be in an immense amount of danger just by existing. No, the Lightwoods also had the fantastic idea of letting a thirteen-year-old patrol.

Alec furrows his eyebrows together, “Why?”

“To teach you how to control your magic,” Catarina says, confused by Alec’s sudden confusion. He had been the one to seek her out, after all, panic and fear were visible in every line of his body when he asked her for help because his glamour runes refused to work any longer.

Catarina had been confused at first, wariness and compassion in equal measure had put her on high alert, her magic scouring her surroundings for any other angelic signatures, which led to her only catching half of Alec’s explanation.

That confusion had faded the moment Alec had raised his shirt and twisted around to reveal white, opalescent scales that gathered into small diamond-like shapes along his spine. A warlock mark.

Catarina had been quick to contact Magnus and the other Elders despite the panicked request she keeps this between them. Something like a shadowhunter-born warlock, one that could bear runes unlike Tessa, was not something she would have been able to keep to herself. Not when that very fact put Alec into a world of danger.

Still, it had taken her nearly an hour to get Alec’s okay. The promise of blood oaths that would prevent her and the Elders from sharing the information with anyone else enough to finally convince him.

That's how they ended up in their current situation, though, Catarina is starting to realize there was some miscommunication somewhere down the line if Alec is asking her why she would help him train his magic.

“But you glamoured the…my back,” Alec says, eyebrows still furrowed in confusion. “That’s all I needed.”

Catarina gentles her voice, “Untrained magic is dangerous magic,” she says, repeating the sentence her own teacher had installed into her at a young age.

Alec somehow looks even more confused.“But I don’t have magic,” he corrects, breaking his parade’s rest to scratch at a spot over his chest. “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if I had.”

“Maybe it’s weaker because of your angelic blood,” Catarina muses, walking over to her couch and inviting him over. “But I can assure you, you do.”

Alec presses his lips together, “I don’t want to be a bother,” he says, sounding old and painfully young all at once. “You mentioned you’re a nurse and I don’t want to take up your free time to accommodate my schedule.”

There’s something infuriatingly adult in the way he speaks, a maturity that comes from being forced to grow up past your age. Then again, she thinks sardonically, being used like the Nephilim equivalent of canon fodder will do that to you.

Seriously, a thirteen-year-old patrolling. Most warlocks wouldn’t let their children or apprentices brew a harmless beginner's potion by themselves at that age.

“I’m sure we can figure out something that would work out for the both of us,” she says, conjuring a pen and a notepad that she holds out to him. “Now, what about you write down your schedule and I write mine down.”

Alec does as ordered and starts writing down his weekly schedule to her growing horror. Starting at half past five in the morning, Alec's days seem to stretch well until midnight on the nights that he isn't patrolling and that will just not stand.

"As a nurse, I'm obliged to tell you that the recommended amount of sleep for a child your age is eight to ten hours a day."

"I'm a shadowhunter, not a child," Alec says with an assertiveness that doesn't come from defensiveness, but from being told the same words over and over again. "And I think I'm finished."

Alec hands her the schedule and Catarina tries to read the different categories Alec has written down: training, trainees, paperwork, Max and Leo, archery practice, patrol, sparring with Jace, sword practice, studying, rune practice, and story time.

"Training and trainees?" she asks, wondering what the difference is between both categories.

"Training is for Jace, my parabatai, Izzy, my sister, and I. The trainees are what we call my little brother and his best friend, they just turned three and are learning their basic forms. I'm helping them."

Catarina nods to show she understands. She supposes she can't fault Alec for wanting to be a good brother and help his little brother with his training, even if the thought of a three-year-old needing to learn how to fight is horrifying to even think of.

"And Max and Leo?"

"The New York Institute isn't a kid institute, so Max and Leo don't really have anyone to play with or keep them busy."

Catarina nods again to avoid asking about the amount of 'Max' as well as 'Max and Leo' time as well as 'Trainee' time that has been penciled in. Instead, she summons a cup of hot chocolate for Alec to have something to distract herself and him with. Then, after he's taken a few sips, eyes brightening in delight - and oh, she wouldn't have taken him for a sweet tooth - she asks about the strangest entry.

"What about paperwork? Is that similar to the studying and rune practice?"

Alec shakes his head, slowly lowering his cup on the coffee table, "No, it's just - when mom and dad are away to other institutes or in Idriss, I have to do the paperwork," he says with a careless shrug.

Catarina looks down at the schedule, looks back at the young teenager on her couch, and back at the schedule. Then, she bites down the question that is burning on her tongue.

After all, the answer is staring at her in the shape of a frankly ridiculous schedule that Alec wrote down without a second thought.

This means the story time entry, the entry that takes place twice a day at the same time every single day, right around what would be the usual bedtime for a three-year-old, is exactly what the word entails.

Catarina didn't think her personal opinion on Maryse and Robert Lightwood could sink any lower.

"Your studies are they with a teacher?" She asks, looking at the few spots those take. She wouldn't be able to ask him to do the paperwork he shouldn't be doing over at her apartment, but maybe she can convince him to take his studying sessions here.

"Not anymore," Alec says, "I just get the study material and the homework I need to finish. Why?"

"Well, then I suggest we broaden your studies during those hours," she says, circling the study hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the days she usually has off. "That okay with you?"

Alec is still looking at her with a confused expression as if unsure of what to expect from her. "If that's easiest for you," he says, hand coming to scratch that spot on his chest again, "But I can adapt. I just have to be there for Max when he wakes up and when he goes to sleep, but the rest I can switch around."

Catarina had an inkling he would say something like this.

"Don't worry, this would work out the best for both of us," she reassures, hiding the anger behind a kind smile and another cup of hot chocolate. Then, she gives Alec his promised portal with a promise to see him on Thursday and dials a number she knows as well as her own.

Magnus picks up on the first ring. "Chocolate or alcohol?"

"Both. As well as a plan on how to murder the Lightwoods if you'd please."

"That bad?"

Catarina thinks of patrolling at thirteen years old, thinks of the hellish schedule and the fact that Alec is apparently single-handedly raising his little brother, is semi-raising his two other siblings as well, and all that on top of not quite running the institute in his parents' absence. .

"Worse."

#foodsies writes #prompt #this got longer than expected #stares at plotbunny #repeat after me: THIS WILL NOT TURN INTO A FULL FLEDGED FIC #also I am cackling how Alec got a different teacher in every AWG universe #AWG is Magnus and sometimes Ragnor #GWSR is Ragnor and sometimes Cat #and this is Cat